Outcomes
x For the Christians, Lepanto was a stunning victory, made all the
more glorious by being unexpected. On the other side, the Ottomans
consoled themselves by ascribing the defeat to the inscrutable will
of God and asserting that, when the entire campaign was considered,
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prize in Cyprus.
x Lepanto might have led to substantial gains for the Christians,
but their always-fractious coalition quickly fell prey to rivalries
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victory of Lepanto offered them. The Mediterranean region settled
into a standoff, with each side retreating into its own domain.x 7KH 7XUNV TXLFNO\ UHEXLOW D VL]DEOH ÀHHW EXW WKHLU PDULWLPH
ambitions were severely and permanently checked. They could
replace ships fairly easily, but they could not replace their trained
crews so readily. Lepanto marked the end of major Turkish raids on
the western Mediterranean and the effective end of their assaults on
the key island and port outposts of Christendom.x Although Ottoman ambition may have been checked on the water,
it was by no means extinguished. The Ottoman Turks would
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and power, and their eyes soon focused on their land border
with central Europe as the stage for their next great thrust into
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take place a century later, on the plains of central Europe, with the
great siege of Vienna in 1683.Beeching, The Galleys at Lepanto.
Bicheno, Crescent and Cross.
Crowly, Empires of the Sea.
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